“It’s where he went the night he ran into Adam. The night I thought he relapsed.”
Guilt pours out of her like a confession she’s held in for too long.
“He said goodbye. He was leaving Huxley Bay and coming back to me. But then something unsettled him and he ended up at the stadium. I’ve been trying to find out why ever since.”
“Chase has never stopped trying, either,” I tell her gently. “He talked to a friend of yours, Marcus. He said the only thing that could’ve made Elliot lash out was if he thought something happened to you.”
Laurel’s face crumbles.
She believes it.
“He got to him,” she whispers. “Hawk.”
“Who is he, Laurel? Who made you do this? Who is Hawk?”
Her expression falters. “We never should have come here.”
No, Laurel.
Don’t shut down.
Not yet.
“The Octopus ruined my life before Elliotandafter Elliot,” she says. “I wanted to expose him, but I failed. He’s a ghost. No name. No face. Nothing. I came back to find Dante. He was my last lead.”
My brows pull together. “But the research at the lakehouse, that information was about Clarissa Rose and me. You sent her pictures, didn’t you?”
Her eyes darken. “No. My research was only ever about finding The Octopus. And it fell flat. Someone planted that information, Erin. I never sent anyone anything. The minute I found out Clarissa Rose was dead and connected to my dead boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend, I panicked. I thought the cops would think I came for revenge.”
Ice fills my veins.
Someone else broke into Brax’s home and stole the information.
Someone else sent that picture of me and Griff.
And whoever it was, it has to be the person who brought Clarissa Rose to Huxley Bay.
Of course, the million-dollar question remains—who and why?
“Did you find Dante?” I ask.
Laurel lets out a humorless laugh. “Do you really think he’d be alive?”
No.
Of course not.
“I thought I had been careful,” she says. “But Hawk must’ve seen me. One night, I got back to the lake-house and that research was just…there. I bolted after that.”
She unlocks her arm from mine. “I’ve spent a long time being scared. If someone is looking to boot me off the island, the least I can do is tell the truth.”
“Tell me who got to Elliot.”
She pulls a thumb drive from her pocket. “Telling you isn’t enough,” she says. “You need proof. This is everything I have.”
I take it.
She steps back, and her weapon clatters to the ground.
